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Friday, March 12, 2010

Berkman needs surgery, could miss Opening Day

So says Brian McTaggart. This is a huge blow - obviously - with major impact on the organization. Let's look (whilst I have a break):

1. The Astros now need a first baseman. Because, and I have no information to back this up, but I'm guessing this is not a 2-week injury - which is the soonest McTaggart says he can come back. So Blum could be seeing a lot more time in the lineup. And this could impact the IF6 spot, as well.

2. This impacts the possibility of the Astros picking up Berkman's option in 2011. $2m is a lot more attractive than $15m if Berkman has a dodgy knee.

3 comments:

Try not to overreact too much. It's just arthroscopic knee surgery to clear out some debris, the same thing Moehler had in the off-season; the estimate of 2-4 weeks is probably a little optimistic, but not too much so. I expect Berkman to miss the first week of the season, maybe two; all of April (22 games) at the very most. It's about as non-invasive as a surgery can get.

As for getting another first baseman--we should be fine with Chris Shelton (.909 triple-A OPS in 2009, .979 in 2008). He's having a nice Spring Training, too.

What I'd like to see them do: for the duration of Berkman's injury, move Lee to 1st and try out someone like Locke or Bogusevic in LF. That allows us to see a) if Lee can play a passable 1st, which would add to his trade value if they want to explore that in the off-season, and b) evaluate one of the farmhand OFs and see if they can contribute at a ML level

What they will do: slot Shelton in a 1st, which would not necessarily be a bad thing, though it would be less interesting.

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